Reality
by G. Sun
Summary: With Clancy slowly dying, Risa has to figure out what happened to him while confronting the man the color of coal. He keeps going on about Risa being "a broken match" for her Keyblade. Why is the young warrior's Keyblade the way it is anyway? Will she make it back to Metropolis safe and sound with Clancy? Read after INFILTRATION.
1. Chapter 1

**Enjoy!**

What is this man saying about Clancy not being here? He is lying on the floor beside my feet right now. Whoever this man is, he takes me for some kind of fool. "Don't believe me Keyblade Wielder?"

"Not at all. Clancy is right here," I look down at the half-dead Clancy, who is still leaking more dark liquid onto the map I dropped earlier. "What kind of game are you trying to play?"

"Clancy is no longer in this world. Do I look like the kind of man who would lie about that?"

"You are obviously someone I cannot trust." I grip the handle of the Keyblade tighter. "Who are you and what did you do to him?"

"Is he your friend?" his eyes fall to Clancy and a strange smile curls up. My shoulder is really bothering me now but now is not the time to worry about it. "Yes, he is. I can see that on your covered face." I adjust my hood to make sure it completely is covering my face, apparently embarrassed. How can he see my face when it is hidden so well in the darkness? "What did you do to him?" I repeat.

"It's not what I did to him. It's what he did to himself," replies the licorice man matter-of-factly. "Everyone has a choice to accept the Darkness within themselves and let it take over, or you can run from it until it eventually devours you. I took control of the Darkness a long time ago, when I was a little older than you." I remain silent, unable to respond to him. There is something off about him, something that makes me want to run out of here as fast as I can. I never felt that from anybody ever before. When I look into his eyes I get a feeling of helplessness and despair, who is this man? "This is frivolous nonsense-" I dismiss without letting him hear my fear.

"This 'frivolous nonsense' is why you are here right now, and the reason you are so confused about Clancy. That is nothing but a mere clone of him."

"Stop calling him that, I know that is my friend."

"Perhaps you were never that close with him. I thought the heart was supposed to be able to distinguish reality and illusion."

"You are pushing me," I threaten, becoming more enraged by the second. "I will hurt you."

"You're unable to, you're still a weak child. Now don't be brash-"

I angrily swing the sword, aiming the broken tip for his face but a wave of Darkness rushes from the floor and protects him. "Oh, now I see better," comments the man smugly. "A broken Keyblade for a broken girl, how fitting. So the Keyblade now chooses lost hearts?" Angrily, I strike at him again but it is automatically blocked by another wave of Darkness. Calm down, suppress your anger, and focus on striking him down. Repeatedly and deftly trying to buffet the stranger, waves of Darkness obediently block every move that I make. Why is it so hard to land a hit on him? I lock the Keyblade at his side, still being blocked by his Darkness. Then with my leg, I try kicking low but I am repelled abruptly and I fall into the pool of dark blood. "Clancy-!"

What is left of him is black liquid and his grappling claw, as if someone spilled juice on the floor and never cleaned it up. Like an insignificant thing; and now his blood covers me. "Rest assured your friend is not that thing. That was created by taking strings of Darkness and sewing them to a doll with a synthetic heart. It was only a test to see what it would do," explains the man suavely, clearly unaffected by any of my attacks. "It couldn't withstand the hits of a little girl I see."

I furiously turn to him, slowly getting to my feet. There is no way Clancy would melt into a pile of black ooze, it could not of been him. He has to be telling the truth. All this time, I was worried over nothing but now I am back to square one, not knowing where he could be. But how does this creep know who Clancy is? "Where is Clancy?"

"That is not your concern as of now."

"Then how do you know him?"

"Ask my pupil if you live long enough to see him. He's coming to your world soon to lead the Heartless to your world's inevitable destruction." Arms wrap around me suddenly, trapping me in this room with this dangerous person. Looking down, I notice the arms are black and nearly transparent. What kind of man is he? "It's time for you to return. If you're looking for a fight, come back when you can understand why your Keyblade isn't living up to its full potential and why you cannot lay a scratch on me, Broken One." I squirm fiercely the closer his hand comes to my face. His cold hand touches my face and I am devoured by darkness. If this is what death feels like, I do not like it, I never want to die. I have to live on long enough to find Clancy and bring us back home. Remember that Risa-death is not coming for me yet.

I am greeted by yellow lines under my hands. Breathing hard, I stand up and see the dark bloody sky. "Am I-back?" I grip my bleeding shoulder and recognize the abandoned street, the empty sidewalks, and the sirens in the distance. Are the Heartless all gone? Impossible, that man said someone was coming and leading them. If he is already here, I have to find him and finish him off for the sake of this world. I gradually start maundering, letting my right arm droop because moving it hurts too much.

Finding Clancy will have to wait for now. Everyone's safety is of the utmost importance today. If I find Mizuki still alive, we can take him on together. Mizuki is smart enough to stay alive, I am sure I will find her soon. Loud wails fill my ear with some hope that other people have survived long enough. I follow the screams hastily, no longer slowed down by my shoulder. There is a crowded police station in the distance and someone standing at the foot of the steps. As I get closer, I see that it is Mizuki, looking tired and frustrated.

"Looks like you made it through alive," I comment, relived that she was able to stop the Heartless for a short while. She immediately tackles me and gives me a hug too much for my shoulder to bear. "Christ, what happened?"

"Do not worry about that right now. What is important is-"

"Excuse me," a female officer in grey says behind us. "I need you to come with me."

"Why should I?" Mizuki asks, a little high-strung and more informal than usual.

"I'm not asking. There are things we need to discuss. Come inside now." She looks to me with a frown and then says, "Fine but she has to come with me too. Otherwise I'll-"

"Let's go," she glances at me and then makes way for the station. What kind of trouble did Mizuki get us into while she was fighting off Heartless?

J.G.P.


	2. Chapter 2

When we are escorted to a military base under the police station, we meet General Pauline, the woman who took us, and General Taylor, the man who called us in. General Taylor explains that some soldiers witnessed Mizuki taking down the Heartless and that is why they brought us here, to fill them in on the details of the enemy. Mizuki briefly explains the situation to the generals and then I inform them what I know from the man who was darker than the sky, only mentioning the leader was a boy and that the Heartless follow a leader and if the leader is gone so are the Heartless. I sneak a few glances at Mizuki and notice her expression is stiff and is locked in frustration. "Thank you for cooperating girls. That's enough we need to strategize a plan," states General Taylor and sends Mizuki and I off. As we are about to leave, something slips out from my sleeve and falls to the floor. Mizuki picks it up first and realizes that it is the picture I found earlier of Mia and Seth.

"What's that?" General Pauline asks, not sounding too curious.

"It's a picture of Mia. Why do you have this?" Mizuki asks me sharply. She has been off ever since I met up with her. Something must have happened while I was away, why is she not telling me anything? "I picked it up when I went-went to her _house_ the other day," I respond with deliberate exaggeration. She looks at the picture as if she remembers something and then goes toward the main General's desk.

"General! My friend in this picture was taken before all this stuff happened-taken by Abaddon who works for-"

"Egglady. One sibling isn't enough for this country. It's only fair we help get your friend out in exchange for the valuable information you've shared with us. We'll sniff out her lair and infiltrate them right away."

"Thank goodness."

"While snuffing out the leader, we'll shut down Egglady's entire operation." Mizuki has never looked so cross and exhausted before. Is the pressure of dealing with this world too much for her to handle? It is a lot on our shoulders but we cannot lose this world, that is why we have to use all our strength to protect ourselves. "General!" an officer urgently enters the room. "Excuse my intrusion but we have reports coming in-"

"More of the Heartless?"

"No, but of a boy who might be leading them." The boy who that man was talking about before! Is he here already, the reason why this is all happening? I got sidetracked when I got to that dimly-lit place, seeing a Clancy clone distracted me from asking the questions that really mattered.

' ' '

The doctors said that my wound was not serious and did not get infected. The alcohol burned when they dabbed it on my wound and permanently stopped the bleeding. I think back to what that man said about my broken "self" and my broken Keyblade. It is not like it broke while I was fighting, I found it like that when I came to this world. He seems to know about my weapon than I do-the same way that girl, my half-sister, knows more about me than I do. My life, my existence is one big puzzle that I cannot figure out. Other people are doing it for me and because of that, they know what gets me heated and what makes me lose my patience. I need to start figuring myself out before everyone figures me out. Maybe after this is all over I can do some real soul searching, maybe visit that man who told me who my mother really was.

"And…you're all set," says the doctor, taping a bandage on my cleaned up wound. "It's crazy out there kid, but you have to make sure that you stay safe in the midst of all this chaos. Try not to get hurt."

"Thank you," I reply frankly, slipping on my kimono and retying the sash. I step out of the medical room and face a pale-looking Mizuki, sitting on a chair right outside the room. "I am back." She does not seem to hear me, her head is down, her fists are clenched, and she looks fed up with something. "You have not been paying much attention today." She lifts her head and has her eyes locked on the bandage. "It is fine now. It was a trivial scratch and nothing serious. We should speak quietly, I do not trust any of these people." Authoritarians with guns give me a bad vibe, it is like having a million versions of my father down here.

"Right. So what happened?"

"I found their hideout and snuck around until I was nearly discovered by this girl-"

"A girl? Why are there people involved in this?!"

"Lower your voice, I do not want the army to here all of this. As I was hiding, I found the picture of Mia in this person's room. There is someone by the name of Seth who knows who Mia is-I would have liked to ask Mia about this person but I was not aware she has been taken hostage by Don." I can tell that I am infuriating Mizuki with each word but I am sure she will calm down now. Maybe I should ask but am I close enough to pry into her life?

"Goddamn it. Why did he do it? Mia could've helped us out here and would shed some light on who this Seth person is." Then I told her about the cryptic map I found, disregarding the clone details. Her eyes widen, I knew she would be able to figure it out faster than I could. "Those must be other worlds, your world, my world, Mia's world, and they've been taken over by the Heartless. How many symbols did you see?"

"More than twenty of them," I reply sadly, now remembering that there were definitely more than twenty of those Heartless symbols. She has to know about the man who looked as dark as licorice. "There is more-"

"I'm gonna put a stop to this." Mizuki's dark tone comes out of nowhere.

"What?"

"I'm gonna stop the leader before he takes this world too." That is something I would say while Mizuki would say something _logical_. What changed her here? "That is too reckless, we have to think of something to do before we do anything rash," I try convincing her but the cross expression proves I am not helping at all.

"I'm tired of thinking and waiting while everything falls apart around me." She takes off before I can stop her. Maybe it is best for me to let her do what she wants, she is not my child or anything. But if she gets hurt then I would not be able to live with myself.

' ' '

Jogging out of the station, I see no trace of Mizuki in sight. Where could she have gone, she does not know where to find this leader of the Heartless. It could not have been too far, I will find her before they meet each other I am sure. The army has this city on lockdown there are soldiers teeming along with checkpoints at almost every corner, probably outnumbering the Heartless here. It is a miracle that they have not caught me but it is only a matter of time. When I look up at the building, I see frightened people on every floor, staring at me through the windows. Some of them are telling me to come and hide too, but I shake my head. Hiding and waiting for a savior is not what I am about. I hear a loud grunt and then an abrupt silence at the checkpoint which I already passed. Turning back, I hurry back to that street and watch as a soldier sinks to the floor, losing his breath as he is being strangled. "Hey, stop-!" I cut myself short when I recognize the attacker instantly, eyes red like a ruddy sunset. He gets off the unconscious soldier, watching me like an enraged animal threatened by my presence. "What are you doing here?" I ask calmly.

"Looking for a fight?" At that taunt, my hand twitches, remembering when I was ordered to kill Don. I said I would just put it off but what if I attack him now and get it over with? No, control yourself. "If not then stay outta my way."

"Does it look like I am looking for a fight? I am not concerned with these people," I fold my arms and sigh. Don gives me a skeptical look. "If I am getting in your way I apologize. I am looking for my friend with dark hair, my age, have you seen-"

"No," he walks past me coldly and then stops. "What happened to the city?"

"You do not know? There is someone leading creatures called the Heartless. That person is trying to end the world," I state sadly, looking up at the sky. The Darkness has already had its taste of this world, now it is only a matter of time before this place falls. Finding the Seth boy is of the utmost importance, but then there is that picture. That picture of Mia grinning with that boy, should she not be with Don right now? "Is it true you kidnapped Mia?" He looks away anxiously and then starts walking past me. "I see, it is none of my business. We are not that close anyway."

"I'm getting her back," replies Don strictly. "T.A.N.K. took her away from me and I'll kill every soldier stationed here until I get her back." Now that I look at him closely, his voice sounds like an underdeveloped teenager. He no longer has the facial hair that proves he is a grown man either, what happened to him? "Killing soldiers are only going to make you look worse than the Heartless. I know where their headquarters are and I could bring you there. But I need to know if you plan on kidnapping Mia again."

"Just tell me where they're hiding," he gruffly demands.

J.G.P.

**And that's where we end that. Shit is gonna get real soon.**


End file.
